Why PostgreSQL Is Overtaking MySQL in the 2023 Developer Survey
An analysis of the 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey of 90,000 respondents reveals PostgreSQL surpassing MySQL as the preferred database, highlights shifting language popularity, emerging cloud platforms, and growing yet cautious adoption of AI tools among developers.
Just released, a new survey of 90,000 developers shows PostgreSQL now leading MySQL, a disruptive shift compared with last year.
The 2023 developer survey was launched in May by the well‑known Q&A site Stack Overflow.
Key database findings: 45.55% of respondents use PostgreSQL, while MySQL and SQLite are used by 41.09% and 30.9% respectively. In the 2020 survey MySQL held 55.6% and PostgreSQL 36.1%, indicating accelerating PostgreSQL adoption.
Microsoft SQL Server remains the top commercial database at 25.45%, down from 33% in 2020.
According to DB‑Engines rankings, Oracle is first, followed by MySQL, SQL Server, with PostgreSQL in fourth place.
Popular CMS platforms such as WordPress typically use MySQL or its fork MariaDB, yet many developers now choose PostgreSQL for new applications, signalling strong trust in its capabilities.
PostgreSQL, named after “post‑Ingres”, originated in the 1980s as an improvement to the Ingres engine and is cross‑platform, free, and open‑source.
Programming language trends: JavaScript remains the top language at 63.61% (down from 65.36% in 2022). Python rose to 49.28%, overtaking HTML. TypeScript increased to 38.87% from 34.83%. Rust grew to 13.05% from 9.32%, and Zig entered the list at 0.83%.
Cloud platform landscape: AWS, Azure and Google stay the top three public clouds. New entrants include Cloudflare (15.24%), Vercel (10.68%) and Netlify (8.95%), reflecting the rise of edge‑computing services.
Some survey categories were confusing; for example, npm was listed under “Other tools” alongside Docker, which are not comparable.
In meeting tools, Microsoft Teams leads with 51.71% usage, followed by Slack (47.59%) and Zoom (45.25%). Last year Zoom was the most used.
Artificial Intelligence: 70% of respondents are using or plan to use AI tools in development, primarily to boost productivity. Trust remains low: only 2.85% “highly trust” AI outputs, 39.3% “somewhat trust”, with the remainder skeptical.
AI coding assistants are seen as helpful but still unreliable, a paradox that intrigues many developers.
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